Breaking from the Shadows
by tamachansuo
Summary: A certain Shinigami remembers his past, and returns to Soul Society to combat Aizen.
1. 1 Dreams

Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Bleach, but the plot is all my own.

**This is an Erisgodessofchaos story. The summary doesn't do this story justice, so if you're reading this please keep going and read the whole thing! ****Constructive ****criticism is ****desired****! Please review and don't just tell me that it's awful, tell me how to make my story better! Check out the poll too! Thanks! :)**

Thunder crashed and lightning rent the sky. Violent winds carried the ominous storm clouds away.

Ryuu sat on the frozen ground staring at the black sky. The world around him was nothing but bare rock

and turbulent sky; nothing grew here. He was utterly alone in this desolate place. Suddenly he felt a

tap on his brow, and looked up to see it start to rain. It seemed as if the great sadness of this place

could simply be contained no longer and it wept openly sending a multitude of tears cascading to the

cold, barren ground. Within seconds Ryuu was drenched and sitting in a puddle. He watched the

ripples form as more raindrops joined his puddle, then stood and looked back up at the lightning-

streaked obsidian sky. --- *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* --- Ryuu's alarm clock roused him from his slumber

reminding him none too gently that today was a regular miserable Tuesday school morning and that

Hanako wouldn't be too happy if he neglected to get up on time. His little sister was rather dependant

on him on school mornings. Years ago she had gotten used to ignoring her alarm clock and drifting back

to sleep, but years of practice of listening for him to get up and try to sneak out of the house without

her in the summertime had trained her mind to wake up when she heard him getting ready. He had

once slept in for fifteen minutes on morning following a late night of rigorous studying and Hanako

hadn't gotten ready in time, so they had both been late. She had complained to their parents about it

and somehow it had all ended up as his fault. He had been pretty much on house arrest and forbidden

from touching his computer or iPod for a month. Ryuu stumbled into his bathroom and splashed cold

water on his face. He looked bleary-eyed into the mirror. His black spiky hair was all disheveled and his

grey eyes were red rimmed from lack of sufficient sleep. For the past four nights sleep had evaded him.

Last night he had finally been able to cease his tossing and turning, but no sooner had he drifted off

than he was besought by that bizarre dream. *Plink! Pla-Plink! Plink!* He looked up at his skylight to

see four more raindrops hit the glass. It was raining again. RAINING?! It's supposed to snow in

December not rain! At this rate it seemed like it would be a very soggy Christmas indeed. He got a quick

shower and slipped on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a black hoodie. He grabbed his homework from his

desk and headed downstairs to make his lunch. Masashi, his little brother, was down eating his

cheerios soon after and Hanako was down last as usual just in time to wolf down a Pop Tartbefore

they left for school. Lucky for her they only lived about ten minutes from the school, so they had plenty

of time to get ready in the mornings. They quickly piled their stuff in the trunk of Ryuu's little old silver

car, and headed to school. Masashi headed in the direction of the elementary building, Hanako the

middle school one, and Ryuu walked into the high school. He dropped off his stuff in his locker and

grabbed the necessary books, folders, and notebooks for his first few period classes before heading to

homeroom. Homeroom was chaotic as usual. Nearly all the desks were overturned and were being

used as makeshift forts, and a rather violent paper wad fight was going on over the tops of them. Ryuu

stood against the wall by the door. Tanaka San, a very small timid lady, sat crouched behind the large

teacher's desk frequently peeping around the edge of it to count the students for attendance, but

quickly ducking back to avoid errant projectiles. She then boldly stood up and shouted above the

clamor, "Lunch count!" Everyone in the room stopped and as she went through the roll call stated

whether or not they wanted lunch and if they did how many lunches they wanted. Almost all the boys

ordered three lunches. Immediately afterward, the paper wad throwing resumed just as voraciously as

before. Just when the floor was fairly covered in crumpled up homework, the bell rang. Ryuu breathed

a sigh of relief and hastily headed out the door. He felt sorry for Tanaka San cleaning the room all by

herself, but he first and foremost had to get to his first period class. His science teacher was rather strict

and extremely intolerant of tardiness.

***

It was ninth period; the last period of the last day before Christmas break. Oshima San, the history

teacher, was droning on … and on … and … ON! She had long since left the main topic of Ancient Japan's

Feudal system for a ramble about everything she hated about the government and was now on the topic

of health care. Ryuu thought he had even heard her say, "If I were Emperor…" somewhere in her

monologue. One of the teens in the back of the room groaned. Ryuu looked out at the droplets swiftly

scurrying down the window pane to join the vast pools of water far below. He pondered his dream

again. What was it? It seemed so real. The place was … familiar. Had he had this dream before? No,

he was certain he had not. The rock plain, the storm, and the howling wind had been so real. He had

felt the raindrops fall on his face, felt the wind blow through his dark hair, felt the thunder rumble

through the ground beneath his feet. He had been there, but where was **there**? What was that

mysterious place? All at once he was back there, sitting on the wet ground staring at an onyx,

windswept sky. It was so peaceful here, but it was a sad peace as if it had once been a happy place but

was now barren, lie something was missing. The wind howled over the rocky plain, and rose into a long

mournful wail. --- *BING!* Finally the bell rang breaking his trance, and all the students jumped up and

rushed out of the room in under five seconds, most completely disregarding the homework assignment

Oshima San yelled after them. Ryuu like most of the other students quickly grabbed his nee books and

drove his siblings home.

***

The night was strangely warm for winter, so Ryuu pulled off a few blankets from his bed. He could never

sleep if he got too hot. The full moon shone brightly through his window bathing everything in pale

moonlight. Oddly enough, Ryuu fell fast asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Normally he would

have stayed up watching the moon travel across the sky. No sooner had he drifted off than he was

there again. This time there wasn't even the slightest breath of wind. The whole plain was deathly

silent. He stood up and started walking. The sky was darker than before, and an ominous air hung over

the place. He felt as if he was standing in the eye of a great hurricane. Everything was dangerously

peaceful and foreboding. He thought he heard a breeze begin to blow across the plane, but felt nothing.

There! He heard it again louder this time. It wasn't the wind; it was a voice whispering a word he

couldn't quite grasp. Then there it was clearly, "Saigai." "Saigai," it whispered. He turned to find the

source of the voice. Standing not too far away was a man. He had his back to Ryuu. His long sea green

hair fell down to his waist. He turned to face Ryuu revealing an 'x' across his face, and started walking

toward him. "Everything is about to change." He said.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" inquired Ryuu.

A look of pain quickly flitted across the man's face then disappeared. He stopped and said, "Once you

remember who you are, you will remember who I am." A large bolt of lightning struck the ground

between them and the wind suddenly picked up with alarming force as if it had been released from a

sealed jar.

**Please, PLEASE, ****PLEASE ****review! It would totally make my day! The first person to review gets a virtual cookie! **

"**Saigai" means disaster or misfortune in Japanese. :)**


	2. 2 Awakening

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Bleach, but I don't. Tite Kubo does.

**Hey guys! Is there anyone actually reading this? Probably not. Oh well. Well for the people not **

**there, Ryuu is a genuine Japanese name and it means "dragon." I thought it was pretty cool so I went **

**with it. Wish me luck! I'm taking the ACT today! :P**

Ryuu suddenly woke up and sat bolt upright in bed. He was panting and dripping with sweat despite the

extreme cold of the room. It felt like the temperature had dropped twenty degrees since he first

climbed into bed. The moon still cast its pale light about the room. He glanced over at his alarm clock.

It read 5:09 AM. He threw off his covers and stormed into the bathroom. He knew he had no chance of

getting any sleep now. He quickly stripped and stepped into the shower. He closed his eyes and let the

hot water sooth his tight muscles. He ran his hand through his dark unruly hair. He had given up long

ago on trying to manage his hair; he couldn't get it to do anything but stick straight up at odd angles

except for one little lock of hair that hung over his left eye. His little sister often joked that he looked

like a crazy rocker who ate children. The little brat was always criticizing his appearance. He was numb

to her remarks by now. His hair, when he thought about it, actually looked pretty cool. Just trying to

put it in any other style was a total failure. *Thunk!* A small branch hit the skylight. Ryuu opened his

eyes, then started to reach up again to run his fingers through his hair, but stopped. His hand was

covered in what looked like some sort of dark ink. Ink?! _How did I get ink in my hair?_ _Oh well, I hope it _

_comes out. _He grabbed his shampoo bottle, poured a small amount into the palm of his hand, and

worked it into his hair. The ink came out fairly easily. He rinsed and stepped out of the shower. He

grabbed a towel and sloppily wrapped it around his waist. As he reached for his toothbrush he caught

sight of himself in the mirror. He couldn't help but stop and stare, for there gaping back at him was an

unrecognizable wide-eyed individual. His hair had changed from its dark color to a bright snowy white,

and his eyes were now a luminous teal instead of their usual grey. "AHH!" He yelled and swiftly backed

up to the wall. _What!? Wow, I must be really tired. That can't be my real reflection. _He walked back

over to the mirror. And to his horror it was real! He reached up and ran his hand through his hair. He

pulled out a few strands. They were completely white even to roots. _What has happened to me? I'm _

_going out for a walk to sort this out. _He dressed in a daze and the next thing he knew, he was wandering

around in the woods behind his house. Whenever he had a problem or was thoroughly vexed, he went

for a walk in the woods, because first off his sister (more like his little shadow! She followed him almost

everywhere, yet she claimed that she hated him. Little sisters don't make sense!) didn't like the woods.

She thought they were scary and dirty. And walking in the woods always helped to calm him down and

get his thoughts straight. _Something is certainly __wrong__ with me. _He thought as he ambled through the

woods. A pale glow peeked over the horizon bathing the trees in golden light. The frozen ground

crunched underfoot. It had yet to snow at all this year. Ryuu unlike most people loved the snow and

the cold. He didn't know why. He just did. It was so peaceful. He stopped at the base of a large oak

and watched the sun come up. At some point he must have fallen asleep, for the next thing he knew,

he was there again. The sky was a light grey, as if the sun was hidden by a blanket of snow clouds.

"Hello," a voice behind him startled him. He turned to see the man with the 'x' on his forehead standing

not ten feet behind him. "Stop fighting it. It is time to come back. Time to remember."

"What are you talking about?" Ryuu inquired.

"You've been asleep for long enough. It is time for you to awaken," the man replied as he walked

toward Ryuu. Ryuu had started to calm down as he had walked in the woods, but all of that had gone to

the wind. He didn't know why, but everything in his body rejected this man. He felt anger rapidly rising

up in him. He backed away from the man swiftly. "No!" Ryuu yelled as he turned and ran in the

opposite direction. "It is time for the dream to end. Awaken!" proclaimed the man. And then almost

too softly for Ryuu to hear the man added, "Toshiro." Ryuu's eyes snapped open. The beautiful sunrise

had been replaced by dark low-lying charcoal clouds, but Ryuu hardly noticed, for he was running as fast

as he could down the deer paths through the woods. He didn't know what he was running from, he only

knew that it was gaining on him and at a rapid pace. Running was futile really, but his mind couldn't

think of anything else to do, so he obeyed his instincts and his instincts told him to run! Run like the

devil himself was hot on his heels! Spots flickered on the edge of his vision, but he fought them back,

gritted his teeth, and continued his mad dash through the foliage. His peripheral was slowly darkening;

his entire world fading into blackness. His muscles suddenly tensed up and he collapsed in a heap at the

base of a large pine tree. The branches slowly blurred and dissolved into a familiar desolate rocky

landscape. Standing in front of him was the infuriating man. "You cannot escape so easily this time,

stop fighting it Toshiro."

"I am not Toshiro!" Ryuu yelled.

"The more you resist the harder it is going to be."

"I hate you," Ryuu whispered. The man winced as if in severe pain. Suddenly the world started spinning

at what Ryuu thought was a rapid pace until it started accelerating. A howling wind picked up and

seemed to be tearing hem apart limb from limb. Ryuu gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as he

fell to his knees. "Stop it!" he pleaded frantically. Pressure was swiftly growing in his head. "This is the

turmoil in your soul. Only you can stop it."

"WHAT!?!"

"Call my name."

"WHAT!?" The pressure in his head increased.

"Call my name."

"How the hell am I supposed to know your name?!" The pressure increased tenfold and the world was

spinning unbearably fast. The tugging wind caused the tendons in his shoulders to pop. "I…" Ryuu was

about to protest again, when the mounting pressure became almost too much for him to bear. His

head, he was certain, was going to explode. The pressure was … a word, one word, … a name! His eyes

snapped open. "Hyourinmaru!" he yelled. Instantly the world stopped spinning, the wind died, and the

pressure ceased. The man shattered in a million ice crystals and there stood a magnificent ice dragon.

Ryuu reached out his hand and it bent down and touched its snout to his palm. "Hyourinmaru."

"Little one." Then the memories came flooding back. At first in just a slow trickle, but that slow trickle

quickly grew until it was a rushing waterfall. Something small landed on his cheek. Toshiro opened his

eyes. Small snowflakes drifted through the pine branches. He held out his hand and caught one on his

fingertip. Darkness descended, and Toshiro lost consciousness.

**Hope you all liked it! Again, please review and let me know how I'm doing! And please vote on the **

**story title! Hope everyone has an incredible day! :)**


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